Elvis Costello

My Aim Is True (Deluxe Edition) [$29.98]

Hip-O offers another must-have reissue of Elvis Costello’s first record. My Aim Is True remains the true anomaly in Costello’s catalog. It’s a batch of unaffected pop and rock tunes with no allegiance to the new wave or a self-imposed genre. In later albums, Costello’s wordplay would become more kinky and obtuse, his voice more entitled and operatic, but here he’s just a kid from the pub-rock circuit with an ear for Randy Newman and a voice yearning for the timbre of Rick Danko. The second disc is an unreleased live show from in August 1977. It’s notable for being one of the earliest shows Costello performed with his newly hired backing band, the Attractions, the group that would support him for the next nine years, and for this fact alone, the concert is a valuable historical document. [Amazon]

Elvis Costello - Watching the Detectives [Top of the Pops]

Zeth Lundy has been writing for PopMatters since 2004. He is the author of Songs in the Key of Life (Continuum, 2007), and has contributed to the Boston Phoenix, Metro Boston, and The Oxford American. He lives in Boston.